ABSTRACT
In framing a theory of free speech the first obstacle is the insistence of many very intelligent people that the "first amendment is an absolute". General theory of constitutional law is more properly viewed as ranging shots, an attempt to establish the necessity for theory and to take the argument of how constitutional doctrine should be evolved by courts a step or two farther. The first section centers upon the implications of Professor Wechsler's concept of "neutral principles", and the second attempts to apply those implications to some important and much-debated problems in the interpretation of the first amendment. The first amendment indicates that there is something special about speech. One would know that much even without the first amendment, for the entire structure of the Constitution creates a representative democracy, a form of government that would be meaningless without freedom to discuss government and its policies.
